Dirk Paessler

Link to The Economist article: www.economist.com/business/202...

So to anyone feeling disillusioned by the headlines: don’t mistake silence for surrender.

There’s real progress happening behind the scenes.

This doesn’t mean we’re on track (we’re not, by a large margin), but the idea that ambition is evaporating ignores the full picture. The quieter truth is, decarbonization is still moving forward, just less loudly than before.

Yes, there are political setbacks, and some companies are scaling back the marketing of their sustainability work to avoid backlash. But in the background, many are giving the culture wars the finger and continuing anyway.

I find that… oddly encouraging.

• Record sales of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits in 2025, surpassing all previous years combined (cdr.fyi)

In other words: less noise, more action.

• Scope 3 targets (the hard stuff) are booming: 67% of firms have them, up from just 28% in 2022
• Companies with targets cut emissions intensity by 8%, compared to 3% for those without (MSCI)

Instead, they’re flying under the radar and quietly doubling down.

Let’s look at the numbers:

• 37% of companies actually increased their climate ambition last year (PwC)
• 67% are on track to hit their targets, up from 64% in 2023

In short, companies are doing the work (i.e. cutting emissions, setting ambitious targets, cleaning up their supply chains), but they’re talking about it less—not because they’ve given up, but because public attention is noisy and politicized.

Projects are getting defunded. People are losing jobs. The mood? Anxious, frustrated, even apocalyptic.

But zoom out, and the data tell a different story.

The Economist recently spotlighted a new trend in corporate climate strategy, which they called greenhushing.

If you scroll through climate headlines right now, it’s easy to feel discouraged.

BP scaling back its wind plans. Big banks pulling out of net-zero alliances. Google’s emissions go up instead of down. In the US, political winds are blowing hard against decarbonization efforts.

Read the full story in our newsletter: www.carbon-drawdown.de/blog/2025-9-...

The result was more uniform germination, healthier root-to-mineral contact (accelerating CO₂ capture), and better soil resilience in real-world agriculture

It’s a reminder that in enhanced rock weathering (ERW), chemistry matters, but physics can make or break the outcome.

Why such a disparity? The superfine silt in glacial flour fills the big gaps between sand grains, forming “mesopores.” These tiny spaces hold water against gravity (think of a paper towel effect), distributing moisture evenly across the soil.

• 𝗚𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗿 from Greenland (90% smaller than 4 microns) created dense, even plant growth.

• 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗲 and 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲, with coarser grains (200–360 microns), led to patchy germination and weak cover.

In our latest greenhouse experiment, we saw something striking:

Three pots with the same sandy soil, light, water, and temperature. But one pot flourished, while the others grew slower.

The difference? Particle size.

If you are spreading rock dust and want to sell certificates, you can not certify these yourself (this requires a third party), and you must also concentrate on sheer scale of operations, which doesn’t go well with the development processes for tools or services.

If you provide great tech or products for EW companies, you can’t do big EW projects yourself (you would be competition to your customers).

As we are very early in the development of this industry, some companies are partially crossing over into the other categories in part, but I expect the industry to eventually separate in these three categories.

Finally, the accountants are standard and certification organizations like Isometric, Puro, CSI, and Cascade, as well as marketplaces like Carbonfuture.

Ideally, a company belongs to one of these three groups. This avoids internal conflicts of interest.

The shovel makers are companies that provide tech for the stone throwers, for example measurements (e.g. sub-surface alkalinity sensors, like Everest), material science (e.g. Sequestra, Qmineral), bacterial-based improvement (e.g. Syntopa) or rock supply (e.g. Rock Flour Company).

The stone throwers are the companies that actually buy rocks, move rocks and spread rock dust on fields. They are doing the hard, heavy, dirty work. Like @inplanet.bsky.social, Flux, Lithos, Eion, Silicate, Cotierra and Silica, all from our CDR portfolio.

In the industry of enhanced weathering, I see three main categories of companies: Stone throwers, shovel makers and accountants. And there are some mixed forms, too, at least for now.

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Such a nice video!

youtu.be/22GN93fOd4s?...

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It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with a photo (This week: Westcoast, Portugal)

The progress of Enhanced Weathering as a solution for the climate crisis - in a TRL chart (updated) — Carbon Drawdown Initiative We see progress! Three years ago, we shared a 2022 version of this graph in which we published our assessment of the state of the EW industry over all necessary steps. There were many more yellow ...

Read the full update here: www.carbon-drawdown.de/blog/2025-9-...

But there are still orange and red boxes. We lack a reliable, measurement-truthed model to scale field results. Policy acceptance is also critical. The EU is only now considering EW as a recognized negative emissions method.

The chart shows both the progress and the work ahead. Let’s keep pushing.

• Certification, bookkeeping, and marketplaces are maturing.

• Awareness has grown, with projects like 𝘓𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯 44 bringing EW to broader audiences.

• Scientific publications on EW have grown exponentially, filling important knowledge gaps.

• Field prototypes are running, including 9 electronic sensors in our XXL lysimeters.

The field of Enhanced Weathering (EW) is making steady progress.

Three years ago, our TRL chart of the EW industry showed many yellow and red boxes. Today, it looks much greener.

Here’s what has changed since 2022: